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Claims of Life on Saturn Moon Overstated

Submitted by LiveScience Staff

posted: 25 June 2009 08:26 am ET

The Daily Mail has a headline that reads: "Alien life may be thriving on Saturn's frozen moon."

That might sell papers and generate web clicks, but it's overstated. What NASA found was strong evidence for a salty ocean under ice on the diminutive moon Enceladus. No signs of life were found, and in fact even the ocean needs to be confirmed, scientists said.

Water is a key ingredient for life as we know it, but water in no way means there is life.

Evidence points to oceans locked in ice on moons of Jupiter, too. And there is water ice and perhaps water beneath the surface of Mars. But nobody knows if there is life anywhere beyond Earth.

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